NASCAR Tree Planting Initiative Hits Six Figures

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.(May 2, 2013) — Thirty days, six figures and one goal – achieved with intense commitment to an unprecedented call-to-action across all NASCAR stakeholders.

NASCAR Race to Green™, a month-long initiative that galvanized teams, tracks, drivers, Official NASCAR Partners, and most importantly fans, resulted in more than 150,000 trees being planted across the country, including in areas affected by natural disasters.

As part of its centennial anniversary, the Virginia Department of Forestry (VDOF) has partnered with NASCAR to help offset the carbon footprint of fans attending all NASCAR-sanctioned races across the Commonwealth of Virginia at Martinsville Speedway, Richmond International Raceway, Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Langley Speedway in Hampton, Virginia International Raceway in Alton, and South Boston Speedway in 2013. The VDOF and NASCAR partnered to sign a voluntary, three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that outlines VDOF’s commitment to pledge trees throughout a number of state forests.

NASCAR teams and drivers did their part throughout the month with more than 90 percent of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams featuring the NASCAR Green logo on the b-post of their race cars, supported by exposure from FOX Sports and SiriusXM Satellite Radio. Michael Waltrip Racing drivers Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer for Toyota and Front Row Motorsports driver David Ragan for UPS, attended events that encouraged fans to pledge trees. On Earth Day the NASCAR Foundation, Sprint, UPS and New Holland joined to support a park restoration project in the Kansas City area with the Student Conservation Association and the Arbor Day Foundation.

The month of April also marked the launch of the NASCAR Green Clean Air Tree Planting ProgramDelivered by UPS. In a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, UPS committed to plant more than 8,000 trees in 2013 – including 90 in each market where the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races for the remainder of the season. As part of the program, a number of NASCAR-sanctioned tracks planted trees in their local community, including: Daytona International Speedway, Kansas Speedway and Martinsville Speedway. Pocono Raceway and UPS also made a donation of 13,000 trees that were planted at the Flight 93 Memorial National Parks Service facility in Shanksville, Pa.

“The extent to which our fans and the industry collectively rallied to positively impact the environment was overwhelming,” said Dr. Michael Lynch, NASCAR managing director of Green Innovation. Citing an April 2013 study of the Official NASCAR Fan Council, Lynch expanded, “three out of four avid NASCAR fans are now aware of NASCAR Green and believe NASCAR cares about the environment.”

NASCAR Official Partners were among the main contributors to NASCAR Race to Green, rallying around the initiative through a series of unique activations, a commitment to pledge trees, and participation in a number of events that took place throughout the month of April. Partners taking an active role included:

3M – donated a tree for every lap run in the NASCAR Nationwide Series™ and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™

American Ethanol – donated a tree for every mile raced in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

M&M’s – committed to plant trees at the new Mars Chocolate North America production facility in Topeka

Sprint – Sprint employees planted trees on Earth Day at Weston State Park in Kansas

Sunoco – donated trees to represent the number of pit stops across all three NASCAR national series

Toyota – throughout all three NASCAR national series, donated trees for every Toyota in Victory Lane, every Toyota driver who captured the Coors Light Pole Award, every lap led by a Toyota driver
and for every caution lap in which the Toyota Camry paced

UPS – donated thousands of trees to areas impacted by natural disasters and to the Flight 93 Memorial site